


SELF-INDULGENCE

by roidadidou



Category: Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 20:22:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8592208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roidadidou/pseuds/roidadidou
Summary: as if pinky and brain didn't have enough children





	

On the day Mittsy first opened her eyes, Pinky was much more upset than Brain thought he'd be.  


“I don't see what the problem is.” Brain asked, befuddled by Pinky’s mood.  


“She saw you first, Brain! It's like the little baby duck from Tom and Jerry; she'll love you more than me!”  


“She's not a duck, Pinky. You're the one who's been taking care of her this whole time.”  


And while Brain was right, Pinky was right as well in the short-term. It was impossible to tell, though, because Brain refused to get attached to her. He had plans to write and a world to dominate, and it was Pinky’s decision to bring Mittsy home out of the cold. Caring for Mittsy kept Pinky out of Brain's hair. And Billie loved to babysit her while they were away, so to Brain, his life had all but changed.  


When Mittsy began to walk, Pinky found it harder to keep track of her. He'd look away to fetch something, and she'd be gone. She never had mischievous intent like some babies did, but Pinky worried nonetheless.  


Brain never noticed Mittsy waddling around until she had somehow left the cage and made it to his lab area. He was startled to feel his tail being pulled, and startled more to turn and see she was holding it. Her innocent blue eyes were locked onto him.  


“...Hello, Mittsy,” Brain greeted. Mittsy didn't respond, partially due to the pacifier in her mouth, and partially due to her inability to speak.  


Pinky rushed over, picking her up.  


“Sorry, Brain, she slipped away from me, Poit!”  


Brain looked between the two of them. Mittsy didn't break eye contact.  


“... Oh, you can leave her be. She wasn't bothering me.” Brain replied. Surprised by his answer, Pinky set Mittsy back down, and she went back to holding Brain's tail.  


“Are… Are you sure?”  


“Go ahead and take a break, Pinky. I'll watch her for you.”  


“Zort… Alright, then. Make sure she doesn't fall off our counter.”  


“Will do.”  


Seeing as Mittsy was content with watching Brain work, he just continued writing down plans. When she let go of his tail, he watched her wander over to his abacus. Although she was an infant, Brain found her misuse of it annoying. He stood behind her, pulling back her hands.  


“You're doing it all wrong; you don't even know what you're solving for.” And even though she didn't understand, he explained the entire process of using the device. Pinky noticed from the cage, and watched with a smile.  


It became a routine for Mittsy to cling to Brain's tail while he worked. He would explain things to her, and pretend she was smart enough to understand. But he did like to believe she was learning something from all of this. One day, she decided to reply.  


“Narf.” The small, weak voice left Brain confused. His first reaction was that he had just made it up.  


“...What?” Brain asked. Mittsy stayed quiet.  


“You said something, didn't you?”  


“...Narf.” She said again.  


“Of course,” Brain muttered. “How foolish of me to think otherwise.”  


As soon as Mittsy spoke her first words, Pinky pulled out his copy of ‘Pat the Bunny’ to read to her before bed. He insisted on reading it to her every night, despite Mittsy growing bored of it, and Brain despising it.  


“Brain,” Pinky complained one night, “I can't find the Pat the Bunny book! Zort!”  


“Probably for good reason,” Brain replied. “Do you mind if I choose Mittsy’s nighttime literature this evening?” It didn't matter what Pinky replied with; Brain already had a book in front of him that Mittsy was opening up to peek in.  


“‘The Birds’ by Daphne doo Mo-...Mar...” Pinky read the cover aloud.  


“Oh, yes. One of my favorites. And it looks like it will be Mittsy’s favorite, too.” Brain said.  


Pinky didn't sleep that night. He hadn't expected the titular birds to be so violent.  


Mittsy preferred Pinky as a teddy bear to Brain - he had softer fur and longer arms to hug her with, and he snored much less when he fell asleep. But Brain was much more interesting to her; she wondered how his tail ended up broken like that, and why his head was so big. He had an air of mystery to him. She had called Pinky ‘Daddy’ as soon as she was capable of it, but she never called Brain anything. She never grew tired of holding his tail while watching him scribble down endless amounts of numbers and big words, and while they usually did it in silence or with Brain explaining something, she had a question.  


“Are you my daddy too?”  


Brain's writing hand froze.  


“Er… Why do you ask?”  


“Daddy is the one who gives me warm bubble baths and brushes my hair after, but you read me Stephen King every night and teach me math.”  


“...Your point being?”  


“I dunno. I think… Both of you love me, and I love both of you.” She rubbed her thumb over the kink in his tail. Feeling the broken bone gave her goosebumps.  


“I do love you, Mittsy.”  


“Like a daughter?”  


Brain locked eyes with her. They were just as blue and innocent as the first time he saw them. It made him smile warmly.  


“Yes, like a daughter.” She smiled too, involuntarily showing him the gap between her teeth.  


When Mittsy discovered the TV, it was hard to separate her from the screen. Billie found it much easier to babysit her when she was too occupied with the television to cause trouble, but Brain found the new influence slightly stressing. Pinky had shown her plenty of Disney movies, but her favorite had become The Lion King. She watched it constantly. When the credits rolled, she stopped it and rewound the VHS tape, then waited patiently for it to start again. After so many times watching the movie in the same day, the film’s warm colors and loving aesthetic began to lull her to sleep. Brain was almost jealous of the movie; now he had no excuse to sit next to her in bed and read Children of the Corn out loud to her.  


There was a morning in the dead of winter where she woke up late, and almost fell back asleep. Her face was pink, and her fur had matted. Brain diagnosed it as a fever, and said a cup of tea and a cold compress would do. Their cage was too far from the TV for her to continue watching The Lion King, and Mittsy found comfort in her father’s reading instead.  


It felt to Brain that it seemed like just yesterday Mittsy had a bow in her hair and a pacifier in her mouth. He would pick her up and bring her to bed when the clock struck eight, and read her stories until she fell asleep. But when the stage’s curtains drew shut in front of him and Pinky, in the dimly lit auditorium, the unbridled applause from the large audience brought him back to reality; he had finished watching her high school’s production of Hamlet, a play she had managed to get a main role in, and present that role flawlessly to the people in front of her.  


When he and Pinky went backstage to greet Mittsy, Brain was overwhelmed by Mittsy swooping him off of the floor in a hug. He hadn’t heard a word she said; as his arms wrapped around her to return the gesture, he found himself pondering, for the first time, that she did grow up fast. Maybe too fast, he thought, as he found himself fondly missing her days of youth. But nothing bad came of her maturing. She found a taste in theatre and music, and aspired to play leading roles on Broadway. Every member of this production’s crew knew she had all the potential to do so; she was gifted with raw talent.  


Their impression of her was a confident budding woman with a perfect voice. They never saw what Brain saw; a young, helpless infant left in the alleyways of Burbank; the toddler who loved Stephen King and Disney musicals; the small child who cried when she knocked her tooth out and kinked her tail, but lived to tell the tale with a charming lisp. But this didn’t make Brain doubt any of those actors or crew members; he knew everything about her, and he knew she would someday make it to everywhere she wanted to go.


End file.
